Another bane of modern Christianity is the dearth of discipleship. The focus seems to have shifted from raising people who will live, talk and walk like Jesus to raising men whose life will be earthly relevant only. You can discern this by listening to the messages preached in most quarters. At best, some preachers have raised their own disciple not disciples of Christ.
Looking at the way we conduct our services, we want a seeker friendly church not a church that is Christ or discipleship friendly. Some may pay lip service to the latter but looking deep within, you'll see what is missing. As I go round preaching and observing what obtains in different places, this is one of the things I see.
Back in the days, no church joked with sunday school. Most pastors knew it was a discipleship system set up to raise believers. If you check the lives of believers that are standing strong, they are products of sunday school. I am proudly a product of sunday school.
As a young believer, I went through a systematic discipleship process. Those days, I remember we started from new convert class, then we proceeded to baptismal class and then to believers class before joining the work force. Even at that, discipleship continued.
We learnt the oracles of the christian faith in those classes. Our leaders were not in a hurry as they watched over our lives to be sure we meant the faith we professesed. Those days, we thought that system was time wasting and too rigorous but now I can tell the difference it made in our lives as young christians.
The goal of the church was not to mass produce believers but to raise disciples of Christ. This they did through a system of discipleship that taught people the kingdom life in small groups such as sunday school. That school has produced some of the finest christians I know.
Today, it appears that one of the ways to raise a mega church is to cancel the idea of sunday school, ensure services are done quickly without giving enough time to expository preaching, collect offerings and share the grace so that others can come in. We are too in a hurry.
Back in the days, it was not so. Today, we are worried that there is no dividing line between a believer and unbeliever. The missing link is discipleship. Disciples of Christ cannot be raised in a hurry. It is not something that can be done quickly. It is a lifelong process.
Dear church leaders, let's go back to the drawing board. Our calling is not to raise successful people neither are we to raise a prosperous people, though success and wealth is good. I want it too. The mandate given to us is to make disciples( followers of Christ) of Christ.
Matthew 28:19 says, "Therefore go and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"( KJV). This is the mandate of the church. If we claim to be in ministry and we are not making disciples, whatever we might be doing no matter how big, we are wrong.
When we preach, teach and do the work of our ministry even outside the pulpit, the goal should be the formation of Christ( discipleship) in the lives of God's people. That was the burden on Paul's heart. That Christ be formed in the hearts of God's people.
Galatians 4:19 says, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you"( KJV).
